LITERATURE REVIEW Provides:

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LITERATURE REVIEWProvides

• Essential information to the reader
• Current state of knowledge in the field
• Reviews important previous studies
• Justification for hypothesis or research question
• Demonstrates authors knowledge of the topic
• Essential known facts and data

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Value to the Author

• Authority on the Subject
• Exposes you to Questions, Debates, Theories of
  Topic
• Knowledge of Procedures and Experimental Methods
• Familiarizes you with Big Names in the Field
• Lets you know where the Important Research is
  being conducted

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When do Researchers do the Literature Review?

• ALWAYS!!!
• Scientists CONTINUALLY read literature in their
  area of interest
• You must do the same!
• Today until Final Magnet Presentation - keep up
  with current literature in your field of interest
• Nothing makes you look more scholarly than to be
  able to say, Yesterday, I was reading that

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Types of Literature

• Primary Literature - 1º
• Original Research - published for the first time
• Found in Journals
• Refereed or Peer-Reviewed - anonymous experts
  in field review articles to decide if they are
  worthy of publication
• Peer Review - assures Journal Articles are high
  quality.
• BEST, most reliable source of information!

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Types of Literature

• Secondary Literature 2º
• Textbooks and Review Articles
• Draw Information from 1º Literature.
• Typically excellent sources of information
• Not necessarily Peer-reviewed
• Contain less detail about Methods
• Provide good Overviews of Topics
• More understandable format than most 1º literature

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Types of Literature

• Tertiary Literature 3º
• Reference Materials
• Derived from 1º and 2º Literature
• Usually quite reliable
• Information usually too general to be of value to
  academic researchers

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What Should You Read?

• 1. Secondary Literature
• Example - Textbooks and Review Articles
• Give ideas for Projects
• Give Background to understand the Primary
  Literature
• 2. Primary Literature
• Gain Scholarly Knowledge of Field of Interest
• Learn Research Methods
• 3. Tertiary Literature
• Read throughout to help understand difficult
  material

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Examples of 1º Literature

• Science
• Nature
• Journal of the American Medical Association
• Ecology
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

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Examples of 2º Literature

• Science
• Scientific American
• Textbooks - particularly college texts
• Use your AP Textbooks

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What About the Internet?The Dark Side!

• Greatest source of mis-information on the planet
• Anybody can put anything on Internet
• Be very skeptical of internet information
• Use as a Source in papers very sparingly
• Always check Source of Information
• Commercial Sources will always be biased
• Individuals post garbage

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What About the Internet?The Good Side

• Greatest source of information on the planet
• More Journals are posting full text - 1º
  Literature
• Databases available with mountains of raw data
  waiting to be analyzed
• Entire genomes of new species are being added
  every day
• Environmental data from satellites and monitoring
  stations being posted continuously
• Programs to manipulate data are also available
  online

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Your Literature Review

• 10 page minimum
• At least 5 references from 1º Literature
• Must include
• background information
• reviews of scholarly research that have been
  conducted
• Your hypothesis, with justification based upon
  what you learned from your literature review
• How your research will add to knowledge within
  your chosen topic